


Carriers

by Wichi



Series: Carriers [1]
Category: Left 4 Dead, Left 4 Dead 2
Genre: F/M, Gen, L4D - Freeform, L4D2, Left 4 Dead 2 OCs, M/M, Multi, Survival, Survival Horror, The Last of Us - Freeform, Zombie Apocalypse, l4D2 ocs, the walking dead - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-24
Updated: 2015-08-24
Packaged: 2018-04-17 01:39:32
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,767
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4647462
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wichi/pseuds/Wichi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The virus that began at Mercy Hospital has engulfed the entire country. The government, the military, the entire population has been seemingly wiped out. For the few still alive, the struggle has barely just begun. They must fight for food, shelter, survival. One hard truth bands a few survivors together in a desperate bid to live. </p><p>Not all the infected were sick.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Carriers

**Part One | The Apartment**

 

Audri jerked awake as her stereo alarm began to sing. She rolled over with a groan and the glow of the display lit her face, revealing the time to be 7:30 in the morning. She sighed as the sound of ‘Right Place Wrong Time’ by Dr. John filled her apartment. Getting up early sounded like a good idea…the night before.

            The apartment was dim, not yet lit by the brilliant sunshine that poured into the aging windows by late morning. Audri forced her fridge open and sighed at its lack of contents. She reluctantly grabbed the last thing in it that tasted good; a Mike’s Hard lemonade. Lemonade was breakfast-like, right? She set it on the counter and grabbed the can of coffee she had been saving, along with the last two slices of bread. Instant coffee wasn’t anything like the good stuff, but ‘instant’ was the only way her addict body would get the caffeine today. She struck a match to light the stove burner and left a pot of water to boil.

_I been in the right place_

_but it must have been the wrong time_

_I’d have said the right thing_

_but I must have used the wrong line_

            She listened to the song as one of the old windows of her apartment was heaved open. They were windows in an academic sense; they were square and had once been made of glass. They performed none of the desired duties of windows, shielding from rain, heat, cold or wind. Old storm windows from decades passed, little more than decoration.

 

_I been in the right place_

_But it must have been the wrong time_

_My head is in a bad place_

_But I’m having such a good time_

She watched without expression as a figure on the street loomed into view of her fifth story apartment. With an air of indifference, Audri raised a large AR-15 sniper rifle, eye pressing to the scope as she took careful aim at the figure’s head.

 

_Now I’ve been runnin trying to get hung up in my mind_

_BANG!_ The apartment shook from the shot as the figure crumpled onto the sidewalk. Audri soon spotted another and aimed again.

 

_Got to give myself a little talkin to this time_

_Just need a little brain salad surgery_

_BANG!_ The second figure spilled onto the ground as another quickly approached.

 

_Got to cure my insecurity_

More figures began to converge on the scene. They were shadowed by her apartment building, and only through the scope was Audri able to discern their details. She casually set the crosshairs on a man in a business suit.

 

_I been in the right world_

_But it seems like wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong_

_BANG!_ The businessman went down along with the unfortunate soul behind him. The sidewalk, once gleaming white, had long been stained with red.

 

_Slippin’, dodgin’, sneakin’, peepin’, hidin’ out down the street_

_BANG!_ The shot caught a woman in a hospital gown high in the chest, and she was launched off her feet.

 

_See my life shakin’ with everywho I meet_

_Refried confusion is makin’ itself clear_

_BANG!_ A teen in pajamas was pitched backwards in a spray of blood.

 

_Wonder which way do I go to get on out of here_

 

All of a sudden the teakettle began to whistle. Audri tossed the gun to the floor like a toddler no longer interested in its toy and stood up to make the coffee.

_I been in the right place_

_But it must have been the wrong time…_

Instant. What a joke. It was pseudo-coffee. If Audri had her way, she would distill it down to the caffeine and take it with a syringe like the addict she was. Having barely passed high school chemistry, this was not likely to happen.           

Audri sighed as her eyes settled on her closet. She had chosen today’s outfit carefully, but regretted putting it on. That outfit symbolized a whole mess of shit she didn’t want to deal with. But she knew damn well the time had come.

She pulled on a plain black cotton t-shirt and dark gray cargo capris. Over the t-shirt went a gray track jacket that read ‘The DC News’ across the back. Then came the black polka dot rain boots, complete with Dr. Scholl’s inserts so her feet wouldn’t die. Her feet had been a constant battle before this shit, she had a tendency to put weight only on her heels, and paid for it. Over her hands went skin-colored and fingerless leather gloves. Neutrals. Never stand out. Never be seen.

            Without a second thought she pulled on her rigged backpack and secured the AR-15. Over the rifle went a golf club, the head duct-taped to the shaft so it wouldn’t break off with one blow. Two pistol holsters were strapped to each thigh. Clips of ammo circled around her waist like a belt. More were shoved in the pockets of her cargo pants.  A bottle of painkillers found its way into the backpack. A bottle of boiled water followed. She jumped up and down a bit to test the weight, and it wasn’t too bad. If a dead run was necessary, she would have to make it count.

            The backpack had three cans of stew and ten packs of ramen. A change of clothes, a box of baking soda, a couple rags, a first aid kit, a bottle of cheap vodka and four packs of cigarettes. The latter two were more for others if she needed to barter for supplies. Money wouldn’t mean much out there, and she never had much to begin with. Cigarettes and alcohol would be a currency greater than gold if her dark days in retail had told her anything.

            Audri sighed and made her way into the bathroom of her tiny apartment. It had once been filled with carefully chosen cosmetics, but when they had run out long before the illness, she hadn’t bothered to buy more. She’d given up the fight against her boring, forgettable face, deciding the money she’d spent to make it _slightly_ less boring and forgettable had been a waste of time and funds. The mirror that hung over the vanity told no lies as her eyes settled on it.

            Her pale face was outlined by a mass of disheveled brown hair, which she immediately tied into a half-bun, leaving only her bangs and a few longer strands on the ends that were too short for the bun. There was no denying her face was thinner, and it seemed to have aged five years ahead of schedule. Her brown eyes stared back at her with that same indifference that had come to know her well. It was plain as day, she was disconnecting. From everything.

            Audri reluctantly strode out of the bathroom and, with the help of her trusty hammer, began prying the two-by-fours off the door frame of her apartment’s front entrance. The last of them came free easily. One last look at her tiny, sad apartment should have been somewhat sentimental. Then again, it never felt like home. Just four walls and a roof.

           

            The rest of the apartment building had not fared so well. Almost every door hung wide open or had been forcibly removed. Several adjacent rooms had burned in a small fire that had eventually extinguished itself. Power had been cut a week ago, but Audri was shocked it lasted as long as it did.

            The strangest part had to be the absence of children. Her floor had been full of them, and since everyone knew everyone in this building, they had been safe to run up and down the halls. Audri never understood groups of people who stood in hallways and screamed. Kids she could forgive, but college had been the same way. What on earth could be so interesting in a hallway that people would scream at it? She looked around at the obvious bloodstains that painted the walls.

Lately had probably been an exception.

            The blood was all that was left. It seemed that everyone had packed up and left the minute the shit hit the fan. Audri had planned to follow suit, until the phone call. Not the call from her parents, explaining they were good and dug in at her grandparent’s house up north, which had enough food to feed several people for several years, it was her last phone call.

            A whole year, 365 days, 525,600 minutes, however you wanted to look at it, she had worked at The DC News, an independent up and comer in the Washington area. They were desperate enough for people. She’d put out applications everywhere regardless, and not many people were asking to be a copy editor. A year later, not much had changed. Some of the old timers pitched a fit when the Associated Press updated their stylebook and she made the appropriate changes, others more or less ignored her. Except for the occasional phone call to clarify a quote, she had little to do with the actual reporters. One person had made an effort to talk to her. Just one.

            Sean Burke had been hired as a reporter almost the same day as her, and he went through the same treatment. They had become good friends, almost as good of friends as she and her college roommate, who had moved to Florida. Audri had planned to evacuate with him, and had been packing her bags when he called.

            “Audri, this is no time tuh be fashionably late! Ah’m at the evac center now, get down here!” She had thrown the last of her stuff in her suitcase and was almost out the door. “Don’t get your balls in a knot, Seamus, I’ll be there in a minute.” She heard his sigh of relief at the confirmation, and the sound of his nickname. He always became ‘Seamus’ when he was being ‘difficult.’ She liked to jab at his very Irish blood, he teased her for being so very German.

As more and more staff had gotten ill, more and more newbies and interns had been ordered to report the pandemic. When the people just barely senior to the two of them had been called in and later declared missing, they knew it was time to go. She wasn’t going to stick around to copy edit for corpses, least of all Sean’s.

            “There’s like fifty people in this group, if you don’ get yer ass in gear, we’ll probably ge’ pu’ with differen’ people an’ sent tuh opposite ends a’ thuh country.” She was growing impatient as she lugged her suitcase down the hallway.

“That’s not so bad. I could use a vacation away from you.”

He snorted over the phone and she couldn’t hold back a smile.

“…Wait.”

The change in tone stopped her cold.

“Sean, what is it?”

Screams exploded over the phone and she instinctively ripped it away from her ear before pressing it back on in earnest.

“SEAN?!” It sounded like he was running, but she couldn’t tell.

“Three uh them jus’ ran through our group, bu’ the military got ‘em. I’s a real mess down here Audr—“

The sound of rapid gunfire split her eardrum and screaming soon followed. She listened in horror as it continued until only the sound of military orders could be heard.

            Three infected had run through a crowd of fifty, including Sean, and the military, done taking chances, had killed them all.

            Audri remembered the numbness that had filled her entire body like she had showered in Novocain. As if in a daze, she had turned back into her apartment, boarded the door and windows, curled on the couch, and waited. Two weeks she had lain in her apartment, waiting for the world to end around her. Her neighbor had given her the rifle before he had evacuated. The two pistols she already had. Survival didn’t kick in for at least a week. The disconnection kicked in the day Sean died.

            It still hurt to think about Sean, and she forced him out of her mind. He had shown her the way at least, the only one who could save her was her. Now that the food was all but gone, it was time to move on. Audri planned to raid a convenience store, hole up somewhere else until she could come up with something better.

           

The stairwell was relatively clear of debris, and she cautiously made her way down. She had walked this stairwell so many times before, and the fact that it looked untouched only made it more eerie.

            A crash echoed on the stairs below and Audri instinctively whipped the rifle in front of her. The crashing continued as she cautiously inched toward it one calculated step at a time. It was close. Very close.

            The crashing came again from behind the door directly in front of her, reverberating through the stairwell. She raised the sniper rifle, knowing the door was weak enough to shoot through if she could correctly gauge the disrupter’s position. Audri jumped back in shock and revulsion as the door handle turned. Had they figured out how to open doors? It seemed impossible.

            Fear of the unknown quietly stole over her as she fought to remain calm, rifle raised and ready. She took grim satisfaction in knowing that whatever came through that door, no matter how terrible, would surely die at this point-blank range.

            After what seemed like an eternity the door opened, and her jaw dropped in shock. A dirty, bloody, desperate man stood facing her. He was a tall, thinner man of thirty-something. His dark brown eyes glowed from a pale face framed by golden-blonde hair. He wore dark pants and the white shirt of an airliner pilot. Blood ran from a nasty cut on his head.

            “Please, help me.” Audri could detect his thick Russian accent despite the fact he was whispering. “I heard your gunfire, please, I need help…” She watched in shock as his eyes rolled up in his head and managed to grab him before his limp body hit the ground. He was out cold, still bleeding sluggishly from the wound in his hair.

            “…Terrific.”

 

            Audri sat cross-legged on her beat up arm chair, staring indifferently at life’s latest curveball. The pilot was curled on her couch, still deeply unconscious. She watched his chest rise and fall under the old blanket she had been using lately and debated whether or not to leave him there. The water was still running, if he had the sense to boil it. There was still a brick or two of ramen if he needed it. And if she was gone when he woke up, it really wouldn’t matter.

            She swore under her breath as she uncrossed her legs and stood over him. Clearly he wasn’t going to make it without help. Then again, he could have the damn apartment and everything in it. Audri wanted nothing more to do with it or him. She looked out the window and the street was as clear as it would ever be. If she wanted to leave, it was now or never.

“…Where am I?”

 _Damn_.

Audri turned as the pilot sat up, dazed and blinking.

“Washington D.C.” she answered simply. His eyes locked on her water bottle hungrily and she took an instinctive step back.

“Please. I’m very thirsty.”

She simply stared for a brief moment and then emptied the rest of the teapot’s water into a glass. He proceeded to down it all at once and she ripped it away angrily.

“Sip the damn thing, or you’ll puke.” He reluctantly obeyed while she gazed outside impatiently, knowing her window was closing.

“Thank you for help. You are first person I have met since plane crashed.” She heard him set the glass down and climb unsteadily to his feet. “This is your home?”

She looked at him impassively.

“I live here.”

 He nodded, seeming to understand.

“Is house to live in, but not home.” The pilot stated. She shrugged indifferently.

“Sure.”

He frowned at her, and despite her frustration, she couldn’t help but notice that he was a handsome guy. Not that there was much competition these days.

            “My name is Vasily Andreivich.”

She tilted her head, this time in interest.

“Like Vasily Zaitsev, the WWII sniper?” He stared at her, bemused, and nodded.

“Yes. Am surprised you know this.” He took a cautious step forward and she took an equal step back. “What is your name?” Her frustration was only mounting.

“Audri, but don’t bother learning it because I ain’t sticking around long.”  

He frowned again.

“Maybe we can help each other. Two people are better than one.”

She shook her head.

            “Look, Vasily, you’re a nice guy and all, but I’m leaving _now_ , and you aren’t about to keep up.”

His eyes widened a bit at that declaration, but she was no longer paying attention to him. Vasily turned away, lost in thought as she double-checked all of her gear.

“In Russia, all we heard was America was still strong.”

Audri didn’t look up.

“Yeah, well, here we heard Russia was the place to be.”

He laughed hollowly and shook his head.

“I get ungrateful brother out of Russia on private plane…”

She tightened the straps of her backpack.

“How’d that work out.”

He turned slowly to face her, and there was no mistaking the anger and underlying anguish in his eyes.

“First, we lose his betrothed when we stop in LAX for fuel. Then we crash here. I wake up from concussion and brother is gone.” He sighed as he looked away, once again lost in thought. “There is no worse feeling than when you are left for dead.”

“How’d it crash?”

Vasily sighed, running a hand through his disheveled blonde hair.

            “It crashed because I realized flaw in his story. He said infected surrounded them, and Svetlana was bitten. He said she pushed him ahead, told him to run for plane, she would cover. I was shocked enough to accept this story, until I realized something when we neared city.” Sil’s eyes were dark and angry.

            “He came back with her gun. His own gun had been slung over shoulder, but he came back with her Kalashnikov. How could she cover him with no gun?”

            Audri said nothing, securing the heavy rifle on her back.

“Sorry about them. Maybe you’ll find better people.”

He watched in shock as she strode toward the door.

“You are leaving _now?”_

She only nodded.

 “I was leaving for good when passed out on me, but hey, mi casa es su casa. Stay as long as you like and don’t worry about the mess. Call it an apocalypse special.”

He could only stare in disbelief.

“Can’t Americans ever be serious?”

It was her turn to laugh.

“Sweetheart, sarcasm and a gun are all I have left. Hence why I’m raiding a store.”

            He stood up to his full height, which was well over six feet and damn near towering to her five foot three frame, not that it did any good.

“I think it would be very good idea to stay together.”

She shook her head in amusement.

“You shouldn’t try to use your height for evil. I’ll let myself out.” With that she crossed through the door that had shielded her from the world-ending chaos for so long and kicked it shut behind her.

 

            The street was unnerving. It was lined with crashed, burned, or otherwise abandoned cars. Sandbags and barbed wire fences haphazardly cordoned off the street to the west. Shell casings from every bullet type imaginable littered the pavement. The occasional body claimed bits and pieces of the block she had lived on for a year. The uninfected corpses had been picked clean by starving birds and dogs, among other things. Infected bodies were completely untouched. Even the animals knew.

            Audri moved silently forward, rifle raised and ready. There was no mistaking the target area of her sniper perch. A pile of bodies, all sprawled on top of one another, sat grimly in the middle of the street. Several were missing heads from her dead-on shots. She had gathered this much from her sniping escapades: their bodies were extremely fragile. Any decent shot could take off a limb. Nothing truly stopped them but a headshot, but a bodyshot would slow them down. Sometimes.

            Another obvious fact was these infected, despite the fact that they lacked any trace of the human beings they had been, were miserable. Some could barely walk. Others leaned on anything they could find for support. A lot of them would throw up. She had never seen one sleep. All she could do is wonder what the hell kept them going, and why they were so determined to eat anyone who didn’t share their misfortune.

            The atmosphere was much different on the street than it had been in her apartment. It was one thing to watch the story unfold from her apartment window, even though she had participated in a great deal of it. It was another thing entirely to see at eye-level. There was no buffer on the street, things here were up close. It was personal.

            The convenience store she had visited so many times was on the next block, and she hugged the buildings as she slowly made her way toward it. No point in running down the middle of the street like a crackhead, drawing unwanted attention. The people who had run screaming were the first to go.

            Audri tensed as she heard a trash can knock over in the ally to her right. She heard a strange mixture of strangled sounds, like someone trying to speak a foreign language with a swollen throat. This was no airline pilot, this was no survivor, and it sure as hell wasn’t a lost puppy. She sucked in her breath, hands white over the rifle, and stepped in full view of the ally.

            An infected man stood unsteadily, staring at the can it had knocked over. Audri couldn’t help but stare right back; she had never seen one this close. His skin had paled to an ashen gray. His irises had faded to the weakest of blue. Blood stained his chest from a nasty circular wound that had probably been the cause for his infection. Other than the skin color, the eye color, and the smell; he didn’t look much different from normal people.

            Audri watched as he turned his head and whatever brain activity he had left registered she was there. An unearthly growl issued from its mouth and it shot toward her at a dead run, its strides awkward like a toddler’s, but none the less rapid. The faintest of smiles reached her lips as she raised her AR-15.

“Be gentle. It’s my first time.”

            _BANG!_ The man’s headless corpse smacked to the ground just shy of her feet, peppering her rain boots with blood. She swore under her breath and wiped them off on the man’s shirt before continuing on her way. That store wasn’t going to raid itself.

 

            If there was an infected block party going on in the city, it wasn’t here. Audri had nearly reached the store, and six infected later, was waiting to be impressed. The only thing pulling at the back of her thoughts were the final broken stories that had come into the DC News. There had been a few sketchy reports that some of the infected had mutated. Audri didn’t even want to hazard a guess as to what that meant.

            _BANG!_ A seventh infected hit the ground with a squeal. At the slow rate they were coming, she might as well break out the golf club instead. She let out a sigh of relief as the sign for ‘Save 4 Less’ came into view. She had never been so happy to see a shitty convenience store in her life. Audri raced around the corner and nearly tripped over her own feet trying to stop.

Block party found.

            Over 40 infected milled through the street in front of the store. Four had already seen her. The rifle clip only held 30 rounds. “Shit.” She hissed. The nearest infected snarled as Audri turned on her heels and ran, shooting desperately behind her as the infected followed suit. All of them.

            “GODDAMNIT!”

She darted down a narrow ally and finding herself pressed against a brick wall. She turned and reloaded the rifle as the infected were forced to tear through the ally one at a time. She raised the trusty weapon, aimed for the chest of the nearest infected, and fired.

            The AR-15 roared as four infected crumpled with the single shot. Forcing them to come one at a time had seriously evened the odds. The assailants in the back of the group took no notice of their comrades being cut down in front of them, and eagerly climbed over fallen bodies to meet certain death. Audri marveled at the fact that only half of the clip had been used, and not a soul was left.

            She shook her head incredulously as she climbed over the pile of dead infected. The stench was horrifying. It was all she could do to keep her almost nonexistent stomach contents down.

            “Some milk run this turned out to be.”

            The Save 4 Less was clear, and she gratefully threw herself inside. The door was kicked shut behind her, and vowed to be barricaded it later. First thing was first. The generator was still humming weakly from somewhere in the building, and the coolers were still somewhat cold. Audri ripped open the pop cooler and pulled out every bottle of Vanilla Coke she could find. The break room in the back would be her fortress, and the coke her treasure. She left it all in the room and tore back into the store, this time grabbing every high-calorie snack she’d ever enjoyed in her life.

            “What more does a growing girl need.” Audri grunted as she heaved the last of her treasured stash into the break room. Now she would gather essentials like water and bread. But the snacks had to go first. Why, because things that made her happy hadn’t been a priority in a long ass time.

            As she stuffed the last of the food into the break room, she proceeded to move the empty shelves in front of the door. They were heavier than they looked.

All of a sudden a low, terrifying growl reached her ears. Fear exploded in Audri’s gut; her rifle was in the break room. She quickly whipped out both pistols and crouched behind the shelves, waiting.

            Whatever it was let out a howl like nothing she had ever heard before. It was high-pitched, almost like a warning. Audri quickly made sure the guns were ready to be fired as the growling and howling drew closer. She spun in fear as her peripherals spotted movement to her right.

            It was an infected alright, but this thing still retained some intelligence. It crawled into view on all fours. It wore dark cargo shorts and a black hoodie covered most of its face. She had barely enough time to move her guns before it pounced like a jaguar, tackling her into a shelving unit with a reverberating crash.

            An ungodly scream rose from her throat as the infected straddled her and tore at her chest with fever. Blood danced on the walls around them. Her blood.

            “GET OFF ME!” She howled, trying to push it away with no avail, “GET OFF ME DAMMIIIIT!” The infected continued to tear at her chest as darkness gathered in the corners of her eyes.

            All that time preparing, surviving, and she was going to go out like _this._ It wasn’t fair. It wasn’t god Damn FAIR. The hooded bastard continued to rip her apart, but things were too dark now, it was hard to see…hard to tell. It almost felt like it wasn’t there anymore…maybe it moved on…had better things to do…

            Audri thought she felt something trying to move her…maybe it was like a leopard…they dragged their kills up trees…up goddamn _trees_ …who does that…Things were so dark, but she could have sworn she saw a flash of light pass in front of her face. Tripping at the end…very nice…with more colors…could almost be a rave…people die at raves…all the time…people die……all……the……


End file.
